"As Long as Final Turnout Matches, It's Fine" — Sophistry… Circumstances of "Manipulation" Found in Chungcheong Too

[Anchor]

Regarding allegations that election commission officials manipulated voter turnout during the June 3 local elections, suspicious circumstances have been captured in two other regions in addition to Gyeonggi Province. It is reported that an election commission official under investigation for related charges claimed, "Isn't it fine as long as the final voter turnout matches?"

This is a report by Jeon Yeonnam.

[Reporter]

The joint prosecution-police investigation headquarters has additionally captured circumstances where voter turnout was falsely entered at two polling stations—one in a Gyeonggi regional area and another in the Chungcheong region—on the day of the June 3 local elections.

The circumstances were discovered while analyzing seized messenger chat logs between employees. These locations are separate from the Gyeonggi regional polling station subjected to yesterday's (July 23) search and seizure.

Previously, the joint investigation headquarters found that during the process of compiling hourly voter turnout, two officials—one from the National Election Commission and another from the Gyeonggi Election Commission—falsely entered the number of voters at a Gyeonggi polling station by hundreds to thousands, and then distributed figures exceeding the actual number of voters to other polling stations to conceal it.

During this process, voting status proceeded with manipulation for about four hours, and another polling station where the number of voters was inflated was tallied in a way where the voter count increased by just one person every hour.

Having captured these circumstances, the joint investigation headquarters is conducting a search and seizure on the National Election Commission for the second consecutive day, following yesterday.

During yesterday's search and seizure, the relevant election commission official reportedly acknowledged the false entry while making the absurd claim that, "Isn't it fine as long as the final voter turnout matches?"

As the possibility is being raised that manipulating voter turnout statistics may not have been taken seriously within the election commission and was treated as a customary practice, the possibility of expanding the investigation to polling stations nationwide is growing.

Meanwhile, regarding the ballot paper shortage incident, the joint investigation headquarters questioned the office director of the Dongjak District Election Commission as a suspect, and summoned three National Election Commission officials as reference witnesses regarding allegations that former National Election Commission Chairman Noh Tae-ak took a junket-style overseas business trip.

(Video Editing: Won Hyeong-hee)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.